Hi Friends,
Really excited about my new Radiopoppers. It's so cool to be able to enjoy all the advantages of the Nikon creative lighting system and radio triggers all in one package! My only issue is the rather bulky rig for mounting the receiver to the flash:
It's fine for many applications. The mount serves as a standup coldshoe base for the flash, similar to the one that comes with the flash. It has a metal tripod socket for mounting on a standard 1/4-20 tripod screw, so I can see mounting it on my Joby Gorillapod.
But, that's not how I mount my strobes most of the time. Typically, they're in a softbox or other light modifer, mounted via some type of cold shoe mount. So, I have to modify either the Radiopopper mounting mechanism or my flash mods.
So...off to the photographer's DIY aisle at my local pharmacy (second only to the photographer's DIY aisle at my favorite local home improvement warehouse)!
The key to the Radiopopper function is aligning the sensor window of the flash with the sensor window on the receiver. The supplied mount does that perfectly with piece of dense foam. However, the foam is attached to the plastic mount, not to the receiver. So, if I eliminate the mount from the equation, I also lose the foam.
Enter Dr. Scholl's® Small Corn Cushions (9-pack). Stack two of them together, and I've effectively replicated the pad on the supplied mount (albeit, flesh colored, instead of a nice techy black):
Now, how to hold it to the flash? I tried a mini bungie, but I was concerned about the metal scratching the body of the flash. And if I removed the metal hooks and tied the ends together, it was too small. So, while at the pharmacy, I wandered over to the hair accessories aisle and found these: "no slip grip scuncis"--in two sizes!
Unlike the elastic hair bands we have lying around the house, these non-skid beauties have a strip of silicon-like material embedded in them that helps minimize slippage. So, they stay in place in your hair, and on your flash!
So, without resorting to hook and loop (which I loathe to put on my gear), I'm able to keep the Radiopopper receiver in place, and still have access to the flash shoe for mounting on my existing softboxes, Justin Clamps, and beauty dishes! Woo-hoo!
Thanks for dropping by!
J

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

[…] my new Radiopopper PX system: combining the best of infrared and radio for remote flash triggering. As I’d noted previously, the new Radiopopper receiver mounting system, while well-designed, doesn’t fit very well in […]